Origin of the World

All human cultures have advanced explanations for the origin of the world and of human beings and other creatures. Traditional Judaism and Christianity explain the origin of living beings and their adaptations to life in their environments---wings, gills, hands, flowers---as the handiwork of an omniscient God. Among the early Fathers of the Church, Gregory of Nyssa (335-394) and Augustine (354-430) maintained that not all of creation, all species of plants and animals, were initially created by God; rather, some had evolved in historical times from God’s creations.

 

According to Gregory of Nyssa, the world has come about in two successive stages. The first stage, the creative step, is instantaneous; the second stage, the formative stage, is gradual and develops through time. According to Augustine, many plant and animal species were not directly created by God, but only indirectly, in their potentiality so that they would come about by natural processes, later in the world. Gregory’s and Augustine’s motivation was not scientific but theological. For example, Augustine was concerned that it would have been impossible to hold representatives of all animal species in a single vessel, such as Noah’s ark; some species must have come into existence only after the flood.